'Systemic failures' led to Louvre robbery, inquiry finds

Paris, France: Systemic failures led to the $100 million robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris last year, MPs leading an inquiry said on Thursday, r...

Paris, France: "Systemic failures" led to the $100-million robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris last year, MPs leading an inquiry said on Thursday, raising pressure on embattled director Laurence des Cars.

Presenting an interim assessment of their work after 70 hearings, inquiry leaders Alexandre Portier and Alexis Corbiere openly questioned why des Cars remained in her position.

"The Louvre theft is not an accident. It reveals systemic failures at the museum," Portier told a press conference, adding that the institution had been "in denial about risk".

Saying that management "is currently failing", he underlined that "in quite a few countries and institutions" this would have led the director to step down.

Des Cars offered her resignation shortly after the October 19 break-in, but it was refused by President Emmanuel Macron, who named her to the position in 2021.